How to Stay Healthy/Fit During Quarantine

Motivation. I’ve published many blog posts that are related to the topic of motivation. Oftentimes, these posts focused on motivation to work, motivation to be more productive, etc.. Motivation is crucial in our everyday lives, but many people do not have the endurance or perseverance to push through and achieve their goals. Exercising is difficult, especially with no one to push you. With so many temptations, like the couch and the TV, the reason to go through the pain and hardship seems to diminish.

Not working out at all, however, is unhealthy. Even if you never exercised before quarantine, without even knowing it, you probably were active. For example, as a student, I walked at least 6000 steps daily just at school. That was my step count with no physical education or sport at school. Since I constantly walked around at school, I was able to get some sort of exercise. However, now, quarantine forced many people to stay at home, getting rid of any reason to walk around all day. This is why I started to workout and was able to gather some tips in the process.

1. YouTube

Many people go to the gym to workout. And there are quite a lot of people who have personal trainers telling them what to do. The benefit of having a personal trainer is that you can’t give up for the sole reason of being tired. The trainers push you harder and have structured plans. In simple terms, the only tough part is the exercise itself, rather than finding the motivation.

However, most gyms are closed now, so there needs to be another way to workout and to push ourselves. The best way, I realized, is to find a at-home workout on YouTube. Then, I would copy the workouts exactly the way the YouTuber in the video does them. Yes, just following those workouts may be no different from just creating our own workout routine to follow. However, the difference is the motivation we can get.

When I watch the videos, I think to myself, If they can do it, why can’t I?. Since the trainers in the video pushed themselves to film the video, it lets me know that I am capable of finishing the routine. It also motivates me to keep the same pace as them, which makes me workout more efficiently.

2. Music

A big reason people do not like to workout is because of the pain. It is so hard to hold a plank for 2 minutes. It is so hard to do 50 squats. However, this mindset makes it more difficult to finish the workout and makes the person hate working out even more. I found that having some sort of distraction can get my mind off the pain.

A good solution I found was listening to music I like while working out. If I focus on the song (the lyrics and the beats), rather than how hard the workout is, the workout suddenly feels so much shorter, and I feel much happier while performing the routine. I recommend creating a playlist of hyped music that you enjoy listening to play when you workout!

3. Calendar

I created a rewards system for myself. If I worked out for 10 consecutive days and controlled my diet, I would give myself one “cheat” day where I would not need to workout.

A calendar was very useful for this system because I could keep track of the days that I worked out. I would draw a symbol on the days that I workout so that if I see 10 consecutively drawn symbols, I can rest for a day. The “cheat” day that I can get pushes me to exercise because it gives me a sense of achievement.

In addition, since the calendar very clearly shows the progress that I’ve been making, it pushes me to continue and not break the streak. I have the calendar on the wall in front of my desk to remind myself to make healthy choices.

How to Achieve Goals

It is very easy to set goals and create a schedule. Anyone can say I’m going to lose 20 pounds. Anyone can say I’m going to study for 12 hours per day. Anyone can say I’m only going to use my phone for 30 minutes per day. However, only few of those people can actually achieve those goals.

Achieving goals can be defined with two words: motivation and passion. Without true passion or motivation, it is impossible to succeed. Failure to carry out a task demonstrates the lack of passion and dedication; it is not worth the struggle to fulfill his or her desire.

First, it is crucial to know the exact reasons why the goal needs to be met. Without a clear reason, humans will naturally lose the will to work for it. After coming up with reasons and building up a true passion, the only factor needed is motivation.

Motivation can be formed in two different ways, based on the person. One way is by picturing the moment when the goal is achieved. When facing hardships, imagining the moment of achieving the goal should push the person and help them work harder.

Another way is by picturing the moment if the goal is not reached. That feeling of devastation and misery can motivate a person to push him or herself harder to avoid that situation.

How to be more Productive!

I was always a student that was lazy and unmotivated to work. The only way I got motivation was by due dates and watching people working really hard around me. By this, I mean that I would procrastinate on any given assignment, and then get motivated to work really hard due to the stress of not getting the work done on time.

This was already an unhealthy method, but quarantine made this type of motivation not possible due to the flexibility of online schooling. Since there was no one around me who was working hard, I was unable to get motivation from that either. This led to me spending the first few weeks of quarantine very lazily. At a certain point, however, I realized that I have to find something to do other than rolling around in bed all day.

As a pro-lazy high schooler, I’ll be giving some helpful tips in being productive during the day!

1. Wake up, no phone

Especially since I’m not busy in the morning nowadays, it’s really easy to just start scrolling through social media as soon as I open my eyes. However, this is a terrible habit to have and a perfect way to start a lazyday.

Once we start using any entertaining apps, such as YouTube or Instagram, as soon as we wake up, it is very hard to stop and start working on actual things that need to get done. In fact, from early in the morning, we’d get used to not using our brain that when it becomes time to actually start studying or working, it would feel to tiring or boring.

That’s why as soon as we wake up, we need to just get right to what we have to get done. Then, our brain will get used to working in the morning, and it’s easy to stay productive that way. Rather than having a rested brain feel “normal” and a working brain feel “tiring”, our working brain will feel “normal” and a rested brain will feel like a present for the hard work.

2. Keep Moving

Oftentimes, people say that they will be productive the next day, yet they start the next day by rolling around on bed. I know very well how hard it is to get out of bed. Once we get comfy, it’s really hard to tell ourselves to get out and start working. That’s why instead of getting comfy on bed, it’s much better to just start moving.

I realized that if you just start moving around and constantly find things to do, there is no time to get lazy. Even if the activity may not be related to the work that needs to get done, it’s much better to do something productive that will keep the mind and body active.

3. Sleep More

When I actually needed to go to school everyday, I always complained about sleep deprivation and the amount of schoolwork I have. As funny as it sounds, I sleep less now, even though I have so little work compared to back then. The thought that I don’t have to wake up early the next day got me to sleep later and later everyday, and my sleep schedule was completely messed up for a while. However, this terrible sleep schedule greatly impacts my productivity.

If we don’t get a lot of sleep, there is a high chance that we will feel sleepy all day the next day. Then, it would cause the person to get lazy and not want to work on the things that they need to work on. This would lead the person into spending another lazy day and resting all day. Then, by nighttime, it would be hard to fall asleep due to the amount of rest during the day. This is how a terrible, unproductive routine begins.

Therefore, sleeping more will allow the body to be fully rested and ready to take on the tasks for the day.

Some Helpful Apps to use during Quarantine

As a result of the outbreak of the Covid-19, students are required to take online schooling at least until April 10th. In addition, we are currently in a lock down in which we can’t leave our house unless really needed to, such as grocery shopping. As a result, I have been spending over a week at just my house without leaving even once. The only time I got a breath of fresh air was for 30 minutes in front of my garage. This makes it incredibly easy for us to constantly want to go outside and socialize with people. In order to relieve some desire to go outside, I have some apps that I want to recommend.

1. Houseparty

This is a very famous app already, but it seems to be necessary in a time like this. Houseparty is a very fun videocalling app. Although many people use FaceTime, FaceTime is limited to only Apple users. Houseparty, on the other hand, is available for all mobile devices. This app notifies you when someone that you added is “in the House” so that if you know that someone is active and you want to talk to them, you can join their conversation, similarly to when you talk to people in real life. If you want your conversation to be private, however, you can lock the room so that people can’t randomly join. There are fun additions to the app, such as games, which is fun for friends to use. Some negatives is that the quality of the camera is often bad (there are lots of visible pixels) and that the device’s battery runs out quickly when Houseparty is being used.

2. Google News

I have never read or kept up with news as much as I have been this past week. Since I know that we are not just having a break, I want to make sure I know what is happening in the world in terms of the progress of the Covid-19. In addition, since many things are happening at once in the US, it is good to be more knowledgeable. Not only that, but many people are bored at home without any more things to watch or Instagram posts to look at. This is a good reason why people should try keeping up with the virus so that we can prepare for what ends up happening.

3. Pinterest

I’m sure everyone’s heard of this app at least once in their lives. However, this app comes in very handy while quarantined because it is very easy to lose motivation when home alone. As a result, it is much easier to be more productive at home while seeing the posts that are interesting. Not only this, but if you are willing to do something productive but cannot think of any ideas, Pinterest is a great start. Starting off with the ideas that are presented in Pinterest, a person can expand on them and create what is unique. “Create” does not particularly refer to just artworks – it refers to anything a person is passionate about that they want to improve on.

Ways to get motivated to work

When I was much younger and I heard many stories about how stressful high school life is going to be, I didn’t believe it. I constantly thought to myself, how bad could it possibly be? Honestly, high school itself isn’t the worst thing in the world. However, the major reason why so many students suffer (me included) is because of the inability to manage time wisely and procrastinate. What is the major reason for procrastination? Some reasons include laziness, sleepiness, technology, distractions, etc. Therefore, with all of these reasons, it’s extremely difficult to get back on task. Because I suffered from this issue, I tried to find many ways I can get start my work. These are some tips that I came up with that may benefit you!

1. Find a way to integrate your personal interest with your work

This is a very, very, very effective method to start being more productive and actually getting things done. For example, if you have been following with my blogs, you’d know that I own the samsung galaxy buds and had them for about a month now. Due to this, I personally try to grab as many opportunities that I can get to use my buds. However, in order to actually use my buds to listen to music, I won’t be able to watch YouTube videos, which is the place I spend majority of my time in. In addition, if I choose to do my homework or so while listening to music, I’ll try to focus as much as possible for a long time so that I can use my buds for longer. This actually proved to benefit my terrible work habits and got me to be a little more productive.

2. Just get to it

Yes, this is a very vague point, but I realized that the hardest part about work is starting it. By this, I mean that once we start, it’s very easy to stay focused and continue. However, once I start acting lazy and just roll around in bed, the thought of working definitely does not sound appealing. That’s why rather than starting the day off by scrolling around in social media, it’s better to do something that is productive so that the day isn’t started feeling lazy.

3. Make compromises with yourself

The best way to get motivated is if there is a prize at the end. However, no one should be expecting someone to hand them a gift after they do the work that they should be doing naturally. Therefore, it is important to learn to buy a gift for yourself after accomplishing a hard task since no one will truly understand the pain of working really hard other than yourself. This means that you should make promises like “I’ll buy myself this after I finish this assignment” so that there is more motivation to work. This method actually proved to be very effective for me because I actually like getting products for myself so it actually allowed me to work much harder.

4. Search up requirements that need to be met in order to reach a goal

By this, I mean that if you want to get into a certain university, make sure to search up what the school asks of you. The reason for this is because most universities have a pretty high expectation of the students that apply for the school. After reading the expectations and requirement, it will be much harder to just roll around in bed without worries. These requirements will probably cause your rest to be less comfortable and cause you to get to work faster. Although this is a cruel method, it is one of the most effective methods if you have a clear goal for yourself.